Opal card top-up melt-down

Tuesday, 08 December 2015

System not ready for paper tickets phase out, say pensioners

“Paper pensioner tickets are being scrapped in three weeks. That means it’s three weeks until pensioners (and other commuters) face walking kilometres just to top up their card,” said Amelia Christie, Manager Research and Advocacy.

“Many pensioners have no alternative except to top up at Opal card machines because they may not always have enough money in the bank for automatic top-ups.”

“CPSA has done an analysis of all Opal-enabled train stations and the results are grim.

“Only 27% of stations have a top up machine. Of the remaining 229 stations without one, 30% don’t have a top up retailer within one kilometre of the station! An additional 15% have a top up point that’s more than 400m away.

“At least 28% of these retailers are inaccessible for someone in a wheelchair and plenty have opening hours which don’t come close to matching train timetables.

“It is unreasonable to expect an older person or a person with a disability to travel more than a kilometre from a train station simply to purchase a ticket for travel.

“CPSA calls on the NSW Government to keep paper tickets in place until the rail network provides accessible Opal card top up points at all stations,” said Ms Christie.